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The Philosophy House
Nation Information The Philosophy House is a tiny, under developed, and new nation at 0 days old with citizens primarily of Mixed ethnicity who follow mixed religions. It is a backwards nation when it comes to technology and many refer to it unkindly as a 'Third World Nation'. Its citizens enjoy freedom from high taxation and as a result tend to earn more money. The citizens of The Philosophy House work diligently to produce Iron and Gold as tradable resources for their nation. It is an aggressive country that some say has an itch for war. The Philosophy House is currently researching nuclear technology for the use of nuclear power plants but believes nuclear weapons should be banned. Plans are on the way within The Philosophy House to open new rehabilitation centers across the nation and educate its citizens of the dangers of drug use. The Philosophy House allows its citizens to protest their government but uses a strong police force to monitor things and arrest lawbreakers. It has an open border policy, but in order for immigrants to remain in the country they will have to become citizens first. The Philosophy House believes in the freedom of speech and feels that it is every citizen's right to speak freely about their government. The government gives foreign aid when it can, but looks to take care of its own people first. The Philosophy House will not make deals with another country that has a poor history of inhuman treatment of its citizens. Philosophical Democracy The government styles itself as the 'Philosophical Democracy'. While being no different from a traditional democracy, The Philosophy House makes it compulsory for all running for politics to have at least a Masters in Philosophy in one of the domestic universities and another Masters in another subject, preferably from a home-grown university too. Expertise with Michel Foucault's writings is universal in Parliament. In Parliament, debate is not based solely on political, economic and sociological theories alone. Unconventionally, The Philosophy House is the only democratic Parliament where philosophical theories are spoken of casually with perfect understanding, and are used to prove or debunk a point with as much weight as any other socio-economic theory. The coalition government is populated and has its power shared between the Postmodernist Power Party (PPP), the Foucauldian Genealogists (FG) and the Open-Source Movers (OSM). Generally cohesive, the PPP and FG are seen to be one party with two names, while power is exchanged now and then between the OSM and the Smithian School (SS), who while not having conflicting interests, are interested in different issues. Politics is not much a problem in the Philosophical Democracy, especially when Parliament sits twice a month, televised nation-wide, and halfway through there is a "Call-In" section allowing all interested to phone in 'live' and debate about issues with the politicians. Finally, for a Bill to become Law, it must pass through the Commission of Minor Philosophies to ensure that the new Law would not discriminate or be disadvantageous to any philosophical school with a small following. The citizens can at any time draft a petition and protest against any government decision, and call for a "Citizen's Parliament" where only key Office Ministers and a dozen members of the coalition government will face off an equal number of concerned citizens, again in televised "Parliament-style" debate, where the citizens have as much weight in words as the politicians would too have. The Parliament Chief takes on the role of the conventional Prime Minister, but instead of coming from the party with majority seats, the Parliament Chief is generally separately voted to head the government by virtue of his philosophical insights and wisdom. The Parliament Chief has the power to at any time, speak using the authority of any party and ministry, and therefore is without additional portfolio and is non-partisan. The nation has no concept of a 'President', and the Parliament Chief fills the ceremonial roles usually associated with a President or Monarch. The Parliament Chief sits for life and is on good terms with all political parties and the people, respected for his intellect. As a result, any Parliament Bill with his support usually becomes Law. Cities The Philosophy House is built upon three cities: Foucault, Compass Point and Zion - each with their own unique characteristics. Foucault Foucault is the capital city of The Philosophy House. Foucault is where The Diplomatic Lodge is built, next to the nation's Parliament complex. The University of Said recently moved here from overseas, thinking that the intellectual climate of Foucault would greatly boost its standings among other universities. The city is entirely-planned, lined with beautiful flora and fauna everywhere. The world's biggest brain, belonging to Marvin Hitchford of the Hitchhiker's Guide, is up here on permanent exhibition in the centre of the city. The famous guarantee phrase "Thought-In-Foucault" originated here, and its use is strictly regulated by the government. The government has a "Exclusive Branding Office" (The Philosophy House term for "Ministry") dealing with the licensing of this term alone. It is said that any product or man branded with the label instantly boosts its market value up to 3,142 times its original. The license expires after a year to require re-evaluation. Evaluation of a product or thought or person currently includes a presentation to the Parliament about it, a six-month peer review session, then a three-year probation period where the entity-in-question has to walk around with a triangular-shaped plate stuck to his/her/its back. Compass Point Compass Point is the region's first mall-city. This means that the city is actually a gigantic building, complete with shopping malls, residences, government services and even gardens. Fashioning itself as a "Learning Mall", the city is managed jointly by corporate giants and the government, the latter who is a great supporter of this integrated mall-city concept. Compass Point residents enjoy very high standards of living being totally surrounded by aircon 24/7, and in order to avoid claustrophobia, there is a rooftop garden built where residents can go anytime for a stroll - or even a trip to Foucault any time of the day, with Compass Point having its own airship docked on the rooftop. The subway system is efficient and is too integrated within the city-complex, though the residents, being born claustrophobic in nature, shun it mostly, preferring to take the safer and more comfortable airship transport between cities. The city-complex has been given the "Thought-in-Foucault" label as a recognition of its prestige. Zion The only "organically-grown city" in the whole of The Philosophy House, Zion is the only city left untouched by the Urban Planning Office, instead being a conventional, modernist city that most non-Foucauldians would be familiar with. The Urban Planning Office has attempted thrice to bring up plans to renovate this city on a massive scale to Parliament but has three times been denied the opportunity, given that all the plans thus far were "un-Thought-in-Foucault"-quality. Zion is home to the Romantic poet Uruk-hai Uruk, who was world-renowned for his poem on a pigeon who found the Foucault forests lovely. Uruk's body is mummified and his tomb open on Sundays for all to visit the final resting place of the Zion honour. Office Initiatives of The Philosophy House The Diplomatic Lodge Read main article: The Diplomatic Lodge. The Diplomatic Lodge is The Philosophy House's second most well-known production, the first being its highly-intellectual population. The Diplomatic Lodge is manned by the Foreign Relations Office and it is generally hospitable to all who wish to join.